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today. what did we learn? >> sarah palin combines the comic timing with the sophistication of p.j. o rourke. >> what did you learn? >> it's the 50th anniversary of g gideon versus wanewright. if you don't have the money for an attorney they have to provide one. very important day in history. >> that's coming for you. >> what do you learn? >> something about doughnuts. something about doughnuts. >> i'm going to withhold. i was going to say something that was going to be as funny as what we just saw. >> you're mad at sarah palin. >> todd's got the gun. she's got the rack. >> that's what she said. i got this e-mail from steve rattner from a very senior democratic hill staffer after our budget discussions this morning. quote, what cracks me up is all this talk that we are somehow closer to a deal.

that's a joke. i find people on the periphery very skeptical and cynical. let them be. seems like the players might actually thing something's going to happen. >> except that guy. >> rattner out there reporting. >> poor guy like that has got to make money somehow. >> no kidding. scratching it together. >> if it's way too early, what time is it, guys? >> time for "the daily rundown" -- >> with chuck todd! >> inster r stereo. fewer debates. more outreach. earlier convention. a few things the gop leaders say need fixing fast before 2016. much more this morning on the brand-new self-imposed republican autopsy. meanwhile, it's another conservative clash as sarah palin ridicules karl rove's reaction to the last election. rove wastes no time firing back. also today, a deep dive. previewing president obama's trip to the middle east this week. will expectations grow for a major peace plan progress before

the end of his presidency? good morning from port aransas, texas. >> it's monday, march 18th, 2013. this is "the daily rundown." >> now here's chuck todd! >> big thank you to maddie and noah salazar. on spring break at port aransas, texas. first reads of the morning. by the way, see the beach when it's sleeting behind me is kind of a nice little picture there. right now republican party chairman reince priebus is unveiling his own autopsy of what went wrong in 2012. while the report blames the process more than gop prince ips or policy position it also admits more problems than you might expect. >> there's no one reason we lost. our message was weak. our ground game was insufficient. we weren't inclusive. we were behind in both data and

digital. and our primary debate process needed improvement. there's no one solution. there's a long list of them. >> pretty brutal report. based on 52,000 contacts with voters, party consultants and elected officials this growth and opportunity project report, get it, gop, offers a fairly blunt assessment of just how behind the party is when it comes to infrastructure, outreach, technology and messaging. it offers a series of recommendations. among them, spending $10 million on outreach to african-american, latino and younger voters. improving communication. connecting people to policies. >> focus groups described our party as narrow minded. out of touch. and, quote, stuffy old men. the report minces no words in telling us that we have to be more inclusive. i agree.

and as president reagan said, our 80% friend is not our 20% enemy. we can be true to our principles without being disrespectful to those who don't agree with 100% of them. >> the report praises republican governors across the country but does not have much praise for the folks sent to d.c. saying, quote, the gop today is a tale of two par tis. one of them, the gubernatorial wing is growing and successful. the other, the federal wing, is increasingly marginalizing itself. stunning words there. acknowledging the drubing president obama's campaign gave the romney campaign in the area of technology. the report calls for a wide ranging digital briefing. recommending priebus hire a digital and technology officer by april. even opening an rnc field office in san francisco. the report calls for big changes to the primary system for the presidential season. noting that the 20 presidential primary debates in 2012 were

damaging to mitt romney. calls for prohibiting primary debates before september 1st, 2015. limiting the number of debates to 10 to 12 and possibly docking delegates from candidates who ignore the rules so that there are not, like, other debates around there. it also calls for moving the national convention up to late june or even july. shortening the primary process. priebus talked about the damage he believes the long primary did to romney yesterday on cbs. >> i think we had way too many debates with our candidates slicing and dicing each other. i think they had to wait too long to get to the convention. i'd do one a month. i'd have more say over the moderators, more say over the debate partners. i would limit the debate to a reasonable amount. i don't know. maybe seven or eight. but not 23. >> to think that romney's biggest problem was too many debates and too late a convention is also a bit naive. fewer debates and a july convention aren't necessarily recipes for presidential succe s

success. just ask john kerry. what was the problem for the debates? the number of them or the participants? one more takeaway from the report, if you can't beat them, join them. the report says this. quote, well-funded conservative groups should seek to hire activists to attract democratic incumbents and cameras with -- after learning the hard way what video cameras did to todd aiken, george allen, even many murdoch. republicans want to return the favor, clearly. while republicans try to rehabilitate the party's image they have a more fundamental problem to solve. all the process fixes in the world can't deal with the basic question. who are they? as the gop tries to solve this mini identity crisis, feuds are breaking out all over as people try to move around and box each other out to decide who gets to play this game. those divisions were on full display at this weekend's cpac convention as republicans argued about whether the gop needs to expand i wants appeal or reject moderation and return to conservative principles.

and debated what exactly those core principles are. former alaska governor sarah palin playing entertainer eer stand-up comedian. not really serious politician. pulled out a big gulp. a dig at mayor michael bloomberg's soda ban. then she took a direct shot at karl rove. >> these experts who keep losing elections, you keep getting rehired, raking in millions, buck up or stay in the truck. buck up and run. the architects can head on back to -- they can head on back to the great lone star state and put their name on some ballot. >> palin argued the gop doesn't need to rebrand itself but fight back against establishment republicans. well, rove fired back on sunday, reminding palin of her rather short political resume. >> if she can play in primaries, other people can play in

primaries. i'm a volunteer. i don't take a dime for my work with american cross. if i did run for office and win i'd serve out my term. i wouldn't leave office mid-term. >> in one of the weekend's more memorable speeches and one that could be more impactful long term, former florida governor jeb bush used his time at cpac to issue nothing but tough love for his party. >> all too often, we're associated with being anti-everything. way too many people believe republicans are anti-immigrant, anti-woman, anti-science, anti-gay, anti-worker, and the list goes on and on and on. >> meanwhile, in a saturday keynote, texas senator ted cruz pointed to sequester cuts and rand paul's filibuster to argue the conservatives are somehow winning now. and he took a swipe at senator john mccain. >> we did have a certain eminence grize of the republican party describe rand paul and me

as wacko birds. >> we wondered whether senator rand paul could corral straw poll supporter. he clearly did. the libertarian senator scored with conservatives looking toward the 2016 race. winning the straw poll with 25% of the vote. very close second there. marco rubio at 23%. no other candidate, though, in double digits. for cycle after cycle, the republican party has been rewarding the next guy in line with their presidential nomination. but for the first time in a generation, the party has no front-runner. could mean a crowded field. this weekend the potential candidates were already jockeying for position. wisconsin governor scott walker, among the weekend's more popular speakers, admitted he has white house ambitions to politico saying, quote, would i ever be interested? possibly. i guess the only thing i'd say is i'm not ruling it out. for me it's really a measure of what i've accomplished and what more i could accomplish if i was in a different position. you got to have a wisconsin mini primary, apparently, with paul

ryan. walker notably would not pledge to serve a full second term. one more thing. all the 2016 speculation was not on the republican side this weekend. former white house adviser david plouffe weighed in on the presidential election at the 92nd street y. >> i'm not going to speak to what secretary of state clinton will or will not do. she is in both parties now. by far i think the most interesting candidate. probably the strongest candidate. >> there you go. his fellow delawarean probably doesn't like to hear that. but he probably knows that that's true. finally, the inability to jump start the middle east peace process has been one of the president's bigger failures on foreign policy of the first term in office. though it's a failure that he didn't necessarily have a lot of control over. at the beginning of his first term, the president declared with great fanfare he wouldn't follow the lead of his predecessors presidents clinton and bush and wait until a second term to push for middle east peace. >> we're not going to wait until

the end of my administration to deal with palestinian and israeli peace. we're going to start now. >> instead, not only did the peace process go nowhere, it's actually taken a step back. when the president sets off for israel on tuesday, he travels with very low expectations. that's probably the bit of good news. from the outset the president pressed israel hard on what a two-state solution would look like. >> israelis must acknowledge that just as israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can palestine's. the united states does not accept the legitimacy of continued israeli settlements. it is time for these settlements to stop. >> president obama's relationship with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu soured over the course of the four years. open disagreements over those israeli settlements and borders. >> we believe the borders of israel and palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with

mutually agreed swats. >> my israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 lines. because these lines are indefensible. >> netanyahu lectured the president in the oval office at that event. the low point of their personal relationship. the erosion of trust between the two leaders was just one in a series of events which derailed the president's quest for first term peace. in the arab spring a major disruption as israel lost its most important arab ally, egyptian president hosni mubarak. most effective player in getting palestinians to the table. clashes between israel and hamas and gaz za in november of last year ended in a fragile cease fire. hamas which is u.s. considers a terrorist organization emerged stronger with the palestinians deeply divided between the palestinian authority in the west bank and hamas in gaza. the p.a. on the verge of financial collapse. disagreement over iran's nuclear

program has become a major source of friction in the relationship between obama and netanyahu as well. >> where should a red line be drawn? a red line should be drawn right here. >> when it comes to our national security decisions, any pressure that i feel is simply to do what's right for the american people. and i am going to block out any noise that's out there. >> the u.s. still believes israelis are divided on military action against iran. the president said last week he thinks it would take over a year for iran to develop a nuclear weapon. israelis are also deeply concerned about syria, about instability, chemical weapons, the rise of jihadist groups right on their border. now the president heads to israel. no expectations of pushing a peace plan. the president is not so popular with the israeli public. something he hopes to improve on during this trip. ultimately as important as iran and syria are to israel, a former unsuccessful peace

negotiator thinks israel has to want a solution sooner rather than later. >> the alternative is so much worse. look at the demographics. in just a few years there are going to be more arabs than jews living in the region between the jordan river and the mediterranean sea. if that happens and there hasn't been a two-state solution by then, israel will face the awful choice which they should never have to face of choosing between being a democratic state or a jewish state. up next, new faces on the hill. new hope for bipartisanship. a little easier than middle east peace. two guys from different sides of the aisle about the budget bargaining and potential for a deal. first a look ahead at today's politics planner. just got timing for the president's latest cabinet announcement. 11:40 this morning the person will unveil the person he's

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my grandpa's name was ambrose finnegan from scranton, pennsylvania. >> i mention joe first of all because he loves scranton. he was born here in scranton. he spent his early years in scranton. >> where i grew up as the president referenced not only in stranten -- >> if you're going to represent the vice president's hometown you better embrace his policies. today we're meeting a new member, matt cartwright who

spent his career in scranton, pennsylvania, working in the family law firm. the pennsylvania democrat was bitten by the political bug after a republican driven redistricting effort created a brand-new district for long-time congressman and fellow drm tim holden. running to the left of holden cartwright campaigned on the environment, corporate tax reform and openly embraced the president's health care reform. something his democratic rival voted against. cartwright won the democratic primary by double digits and went on to easily beat his republican challenger. joining me, congressman matt cartwright. also joining with us fellow freshman who we met a few weeks ago. we save the biography a little bit. indiana republican congressman luke messer, president of the republican freshman class. congressman cartwright, you are one of four presidents, i need to get that clear, right? have you guys decided how you serve? >> that's -- we have. the first year is going to be split. we have co-presidents the first year between me and a terrific congressman from san antonio, texas.

joaquin castro. we'll be co-presidents the first year. the second year will be michelle luhan gresham from new mexico. and a terrific congressman from maryland, john delaney. >> who we met just last week here. congressman cartwright i want to start with you. i know you guys had a bipartisan meeting last week with bill gates. i hear all this talk. luke messer has been on here before with other freshmen democrats. that this freshman class is intent on trying to put something together. is there any chance you guys are going to be able to do stuff together that is on the budget process itself? >> well, chuck, there's -- first of all, i want to say i'm appearing live from the beautiful sordony theater in downtown piston, pennsylvania, which is between joe biden's hometown of scranton and wilksbury. so proud to represent northeastern pennsylvania as

you've described. i want to say, there are going to be things that folks like luke and i never will agree on. but what we understand is that there are a lot more things that we will agree on. and if we spend more time together, such as in social outings and things like the bill gates lecture, we're at least going to come to respect each other, enjoy each other's company. now, bill gates's lecture was a terrific example of that -- go ahead. >> no, no, no. that's fine. congressman messer, i wanted to ask you about something. we go to the budget debate. something speaker boehner said this weekend. let me play the clip and ask you to respond. >> we do not have an immediate debt crisis. but we all know that we have one looming. nobody knows where this is. it could be a year or two years, three years, four years. it's not an immediate problem. >> so, congressman messer, speaker boehner is saying that the debt is not an immediate

problem. which is the same thing president obama said last week and republicans criticized him for it. isn't everybody more on the same page than we realize? >> well, i think we may be. what we do about it is the real challenge. first i just want to mention it's great to be on with matt. matt and i disagree on some topics but we certainly agree we have to have a certain civility to this process. it's much harder to dmonize somebody you like. we can work together if we get to know each other. as to the speaker's specific comments i think what the speaker was trying to shoot straight and say, it's not as if our government's going to collapse tomorrow or the economy is going to collapse tomorrow if we do nothing. but it's time to quit kicking the can down the road. you know, the folks on the other side of the aisle have talked about a balanced approach. but there's nothing balanced about a budget that doesn't balance. frankly the republican proposal is a relatively modest one. we grow government by 3.5% a year over the next ten years and balance the budget to, you know, put our kids and grand kids in a better position. >> obviously a big issue is going to be medicare.

congressman cartwright, i want to get you to respond to something that senator corker says he wants president obama to do. here's what he said over the weekend. >> when the president uses his bully pulpit to explain to the american people that families are only paying one-third of the cost of medicare, we will know that we've begun the process of trying to solve this problem. i hope that happens as soon as he gets back from israel. >> congressman cartwright, i know there's a lot of disagreement about how you reform medicare. is there a raising of the age and all that. but should the president go out there and explain that there is some funding issues having to do with medicare to get more of the country engaged? >> well, first off, as i said before, there's a lot more that we agree about than what we disagree about. so, for example, i think the democrats and republicans both agree that we've got to get to a balanced budget picture. it's just a question of when and

how do you do it. the democrats want to see a balanced approach. the republicans have their own approach that they've already talked about. as far as medicare, my feeling about medicare is, you don't want to panic. ever since medicare was started, they've been having doomsday dates on medicare. same thing with social security. you know, it's going to be insolvent by 2016. it's going to be insolvent by 2024. to my mind, the key is, don't panic about those insolvency dates and let's not raise the entitlement age to either medicare or social security, because it's one thing to tell a white collar worker in a suit that he or she has to work a couple of extra years behind the desk. but for people who are lifting and carrying, people who are climbing and hammering, a couple of extra years is a big deal. >> congressman messer, it seems to me that what republicans want to say in entitlement reform is we're for it, but we want the

president to own the plan for political cover. am i being too cynical? >> i don't think that's fair. i think clearly if you ask the american people today who is more engaged and believes that we need to reform social security and medicare, they would tend to shift that blame on to republicans. i think all the senator was saying is this. the president's been very active on gun control and the fact that he believes in having press conferences and pep rallies about that. he's been very active on the fact that he thinks we need to replace the sequester. frankly, through his inaugural address and his state of the union, he's missed opportunities to help the american people understand that we have real challenges going forward on social security and medicare. congressman cartwright is right. these programs have been around for a long time. but at varying times in american history, leaders have made the choices it took to preserve them. we need to make those decisions now. >> all right. i'm going to have to put a pause on this one. congressman matt cartwright, democrat from joe biden's home area of scranton. you're in the middle of it. i won't say hometown. and congressman luke messer, republican freshman from

indiana. thank you both. appreciate it. up next, developing news out of florida where police say they have found improvised explosive devices on a college campus. plus, vetting the voters. as the supreme court gets set to consider a controversial voter id law, we're learning about the first ever cyber attack on an online election system. first, toot's trivia question. frances perkins was the first female member of a president's cabinet. since perkins, how many women have led the labor department? first person to tweet me the correct answer @chucktodd @dailyrundown gets a shout out. it's delicious. so now we've turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. i never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ robert ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams.

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evacuated from a dormitory at the university of central florida in orlando early this morning after explosive devices were found on campus. authorities found the explosives when they were investigating a suspicious death in the residence hall. after getting a call about an armed suspect around midnight police responded to find an apparent suicide victim. they also found exploexplosives handgun and assault weapon. right now the campus is closed for classes and normal operations until noon today. attorneys for the state of arizona will argue before the supreme court today to defend a law requiring people to provide proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. critics of the law say it conflicts with the federal voter law that congress passed several years ago. that law says each state is required to accept and use a federal registration form that makes each applicant state under penalty of perjury that they are american citizens. arizona's law goes a step further requiring applicants to provide proof of citizenship. supreme court agrees with arizona, then states will have broader powers to impose their own voter registration

requirements. the ruling on the case is expected sometime before july. an attempt to illegally obtain absentee ballots in florida last year is the first known case of a cyber attack against the u.s. election system. according to a report, miamiseniors.com the case involves over 2,000 fphantom requests. traced back to a small number of computers with ip addresses from ireland, england and india. it's unclear whether the requests for sent to influence the race or test the system or simply introduce a little chaos into the voting process. well, as the president prepares to leave for the middle east we're taking a deep dive into the substance and symbolism of the trip from iran to syria to the stalled peace progress. is progress possible? nothing like the beauty of low expectation on one of these trips. that's about the one thing the white house is hanging its hat on. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. when did you know that grandma was the one?

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today's deep dive and because it's monday we decided to unveil some new tricks. all part of a special presentation on president obama's first trip to the middle east. so let me get you started here. after leaving washington tomorrow night, he will arrive in tel-aviv around 6:30 a.m. middle eastern time. there he is. he'll visit an iron dome missile launcher. then he will head to jerusalem where there he will meet with president perez, prime minister netanyahu, then attend a dinner with prime minister netanyahu, working dinner at his residence that will include some of the middle east peace process aspect of things. thursday the president choppers to the best bank. he'll meet with mahmoud abbas before traveling back to israel.

thursday afternoon in jerusalem president obama will address the israeli people. this will be an attempt -- later he will attend a state dinner at the residence of shimon perez. an attempt to try to fix some of his public relations problem with israelis in general. on friday the president then will head to aman, jordan. where he'll meet with king abdullah and attend a dinner at the palace there. finally on saturday, it is off to the famous city of petra. president obama will tour the ancient city carved into the mountain side before boarding air force one and heading home. it's a trip that does not have a lot of policy expectations. it is filled, of course, with symbolism. while the trip does include stops in the west bank and jordan, this is really about israel and the president's opportunity to heal relations with the israeli leadership and

its people. steve clemens is washington editor at large for "the atlantic." also with the new america foundation. steve, what's amazing about this trip and thinking about the peace process and what we went through earlier, the president was determined. and believed, i think, some of his own ret eerrati erhetoric ts going to be able to be a game changer. here we are in the second term. he said he wasn't going to wait until the second term for peace process. it didn't work. there's a lot of reasons. one of the bigger ones is terrible relations with the israeli government. >> the president came in. he wanted to change the game. he wanted to be the nixon, frankly, who changed the way global gravity worked. he felt solidly all of the problems the united states was facing at that time, whether it was in afghanistan, whether it was in the broad middle east and the real disdain many arabs had for the united states in the wake of the gulf war, he thought if we could fix this problem, many of the other problems would be fixed. and that proved to be when he went head to head in a sumo bout with netanyahu, netanyahu pushed

him out of the ring onset settlements. >> george mitchell has this theory, i want to play it for you, but it has to do with the lack -- his explanation of why he thinks there's a lack of urgency for a peace deal. here's what he said. >> i think the real danger is that the absence of conflict now creates a false sense of lull and security on both sides. and reduces the imperative to move forward that does exist when people are dying and war is going on. and the hard part will be to persuade both the leaders and the societies of the enormous risk that exists by not doing anything. >> of course, george mitchell, he was brought in. he thought here is a guy of lebanese descent. there was this thinking it wouldn't look like it was so one-sided with the israeli.

he could get nothing done. >> george mitchell tried to make mahmoud abbas look like a winner. deliver resources to him. that would somehow knock hamas out of the picture. >> by the way, he is a winner, though. economically. the west bank versus gaza, where would you want to live. >> west bank, of course. >> not even close. >> there are a lot of issues about the legitimacy of hamas. is this conflict as strategically significant today as it was when obama came into office? and the sad fact is, i think in the long-term strategically it is important to resolve this. there was a different driver before the arab spring, before we saw the conflict in syria that what has happened is we needed to do a deal in that region because it would rob from the iranians their legitimacy in the region. that's less true today. because the iranians are facing problems in syria, everywhere else. so the driver of solving -- so israel and palestine has become somewhat strategically detached from the rest of the region.

>> understandable. but the problem is if you don't do a deal now, then all of a sudden what if there is no king abdullah in jordan. we don't know what's going to come up in syria. we already see that we don't have a negotiating partner in egypt right now that is -- truly could do what mubarak used to be able to do in this process. if you don't do it now you may never be able to do it. >> no. we have a strategy of security with israel which i believe is very important. it's a new orleans levee strategy. it's basically let's build those levees higher and higher to anticipate bigger and bigger storms. they're not trying to mitigate the concerns and problems in the region as much as i think would be more constructive. i think that's what president obama was trying to do. and he's doing something -- i mean, he's been on the charm offensive with republicans. he's now on a charm offensive with israeli youth. >> yes. >> also the entire palestinian public. he's doing to some degree what netanyahu did here in the united states during the election. going to the people. >> it causes pressure. the pressure works.

it moved the president here. >> when obama came into office he failed when there was an election coming up just after president obama was elected, and people tried hard to get obama to offer soft targets at what he thought would satisfy obama. he didn't do it. they wanted the election to respond to the president of the united states. now he's doing what he probably should have done in the first term. >> very quickly, if syria -- when syria falls. i think everybody believes it's a when, not an if. does that make the peace process harder or easier? >> i think that -- that right now the reality is they're detached. i think that if syria continues to be a mess. let's ask ourselves what that means. it probably means that syria goes -- the problems go over border. if they begin to go into iraq. begin to go into turkey. begin to go into, of course, lebanon. as that begins to happen, to spill over through the region, i don't think it necessarily affects one way or another the palestinia

palestinians. it raises the temperature in the entire region. that doesn't mean the effort will go into a palestine and israel deal. >> steve clemons. >> great to be with you. quick live look. markets. dow finished in negative territory friday. very small. snapped a ten-day winning streak. guess what? concerns from the eurozone hitting the markets in europe and in asia and hitting these markets pretty hard. i'll be traveling with the president on his trip. we'll be live from the middle east later this week a number of times. but up next, family feud. our gaggle will be here. the latest on the republican infighting and the party's new plan to fix its mistakes. first, white house soup of the day. roasted vegetable soup. not exactly your day after st. pad paddy's day type of soup. don't forget to follow us on facebook. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] when it comes to the financial obstacles military families face, we understand. our financial advice is geared specifically to current and former military members and their families. life brings obstacles. usaa brings retirement advice.

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republicans. though the party's chair pointed to messaging among a lost list of failures, he doubled down on the party's prince iplesprincip >> to be clear, our principles are sound. our principles are not old, rusty thoughts in some book. freedom and opportunity are ever fresh, revolutionary ideas. >> let's bring in our monday gaggle. former omb director and former republican congressman from iowa jim nuszle. former democratic senator from arkansas blanche lincoln. and manu raju. welcome, all. congressman nussle, i'll start with you. >> an autopsy? >> is that not what you would call it? >> exploratory surgery. autopsy is on things that are dead. it's not completely dead. >> what he's trying to say is can conservatism be modernized?

how do you modernize conservative? >> we were talking about this. it's certainly a worthwhile effort. every party goes through it when they lose. this one, i think, priebus is doing a much more thorough job and i think is much more thoughtful about this, much more mature about this process than possibly any time in the past. >> it was blunt language in the report. i have to say. i was impressed. >> often it's done as way to try and save their job. that's not what this is about. i think it's going to have a much better impact as a result. it's still going to be candidate driven at the final analysis. it's a good job to start. >> senator lincoln, as he pointed out, democrats went through this in '85, '89. there were harsh fights in '05 about the future of the democratic party. in just two short years they figured out what they were for. the question is, is this a short -- is this a short trip in the self-imposed wilderness or a long one? >> it depends on what they come

up with. for any candidates, democrats or republicans, they've got to go back to what's on people's mind. right now it's the economy. putting the economy back on track. putting them back to work. creating jobs. taking that deep dive into the difficult questions that have to be answered in washington and sticking around up here and working together to come up with -- >> it's this whole thipg of relevant in everyday lives. there's one little thing we're going to love potentially as journalists, i guess. the rnc wants more trackers. the real problem was democrats had too many video trackers. the republicans don't have it. what's interesting here about this recommendation is it sort of -- it's sort of an odd recommendation because the parties have been doing this for years. opposition research, following around a candidate is something you do for years. it's just that republicans got caught. is the problem the message or just simply getting caught? >> it's probably candidate training. y you don't want to be saying things behind closed doors like the 47% thing or what have you that could get caught on tape, that could get used against you.

not only with the rnc but also republican senate candidates, what you'll see this year an effort, really concerted effort by the republican senatorial campaign committee to try to urge these candidates to be better on message and not make those comments. >> my concern about all this is overcorrecting. i think, why is chris christie popular? because he doesn't seem like he's following a script and following rules that somebody told him. there's a fine line here, right? the public will forgive a blunder if you're always talking straight. >> well, and that's why -- that's why i said this to begin with. i don't think that if the new jersey republican party had tried to figure out how to fix itself, they would not have gone into the basement and created a chris christie. chris christie came out of nowhere in order to become the leader. i think what we need in the republican party are leaders. we need people who can communicate, who can connect. which is what you were talking about in the everyday lives of voters, of real people. and that's what we've been lacking. we've been talking to ourselves.

we've been trying to produce the perfect republican that appeals to the base. as opposed to appealing to everyone and leading the country forward on tihe issues that are challenging us. >> are you at all worried, should democrats go through any self-analysis? >> oh, absolutely. everyone should. >> what is it? if you're the democrats what do they need to improve on to make sure they don't let those republicans catch up. >> i think the important thing for both sides, but in my opinion is is that real leadership is not about control. real leadership is about creating an environment where people can solve problems. and they both have to take a lesson in that playbook. they've got to, you know, chris christie who comes up and says i'm going to lead this state. i'm going to take care of the issues that you all are faced with. i'm going to work with whoever it takes to make that happen. i think that's what people are starving for. somebody that's really going to lead, not just try to control them. >> manu, what are the -- the federal wing of the party took a beating in this report by reince priebus. how are the federal election

holders in the republican party going to handle that? >> i think they're going to take it very seriously. look, they acknowledge that things are not going well. they need to make serious adjustments, not only getting their base onboard with what they're doing -- >> doesn't it undermine on boar. >> doesn't it undermine their credibility in some of the positions they're taking with the president to negotiate? >> that's really what he might be saying? >> that's right. how do you moderate when you get involved in the grand bargain discussions going forward. what does that mean for the actual policies unveiled. i'm not sure much, actually. >> all right. i want to avoid that. i'm trying guys. trivia time. we asked frances perkins, first people mail member of the president's cabinet. since perkins, how many women have led the labor department. the answer, six. the only male secretary of labor is robert reich. congratulations to troy apple. my apologies, troy, if you've got a political question for us

e-mail us at msnbc.com. we'll be right back. ♪ [ female announcer ] this is your moment. the delightful discovery.

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let's bring back our gaggle former congressman jim us inle. blanche lincoln and manu raju. the america's bookkeepers, and they have stop doing that, is he right? >> you're asking? >> i know. >> i asked the numbers guy. i'm curious what the reaction is to that. >> the answer is yes, because if the numbers don't connect to real policies, real situations, real challenges to our country, then they mean nothing. and balance -- balance is just the equation of z "a" plus "b" equal zero. that's basically all it is.

it's a math problem. so that's not the problem most people are talking about around their kitchen tables. that's why they've got to get away from just the numbers. >> let me ask you this, does the president mean -- to ask the white house, if they put out a full-fledged plan. if they want to push republicans on more taxes do do a deal, does he need a plan first? >> well, that's going to be hard. if the republicans say they want cuts and entitlements he's waiting on them to put them down first. it's a little card-playing. still, i got to believe, you're right, it's not those deep numbers but when people talk what about we're up against, they don't understand it's ten-year number, 75% is entitlements. >> manu, this is why i don't believe it's a big deal, because nobody wants to go first? >> that's right. nobody wants the budget process. they're completely opposite. >> shameless plugs.

>> wisconsin badgers, my alma mater playing against ole miss. >> the five seed. >> they could make a run. >> i like that. i need you to knock off that one seed. mr. nussle. >> i'm speaking to the small business administration today at noon. >> my courage coach kermit davis is going to take the blue raiders to the ncaa. >> they've got a legitimate chance. for me, it's about miami, the hurricanes, they're a legit final four team. that's it for "the daily rundown." i'll see you on wednesday. tomorrow on the show, the ten-year anniversary of the start of the war in iraq. you won't believe the way politics have changed since we got into that conflict. the lessons learned and the future. coming up chris jansing, bye-bye.

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